Sonos has been the historical leader in wireless, multi-room music distribution systems for years offering a full range of excellent hi-fi quality products with the only drawback, until now, being it could get expensive to equip the entire house, despite the ease of installation. The new Sonos PLAY:1 is a major development for Sonos in that its price point allows it to take on the speaker segment of this market now generally dominated by Bluetooth technology. The Sonos Play:1 is small, powerful, very easy to install and flexible to add more speakers throughout the house, while being an affordable way to create a true wireless home audio system.
Sonos PLAY:1
Under the stylish outside, available in black and white with a continuous curved wrap-around grill, under-the-hood we find two tuned Class D amplifiers, one 3.5" (8.9cm) mid-woofer for the midrange frequencies, while offering deep bass, combined with a tweeter for hi-fi quality sound. The Sonos PLAY:1 does not have an internal battery so it needs to be connected the house mains line which offers the advantage of addition power for the amplifiers to fill the room with music, while making it less portable, for example, if you want to take it out into the garden next to the pool. On the back is a screw mount to make it simple for wall or stand mounting.
Sonos PLAY:1 A look at the technology inside
For those of you not (yet) totally familiar with the Sonos multi-room concept, in simple terms it is based on having at least one of their products physically connected to your router through Ethernet. With the PLAY:1 you can either connect it directly to router, or if you want to place it at a distance from the router, or use it in another room, you will then need to connect their Bridge device to the router. The good news is their Bridge is currently offered for free when buying a Sonos PLAY:1.
The big advantage of the Sonos system is the easy initial set-up and flexibility to expand the system once that is done. To to use Sonos’ proprietary wireless standard, you simply plug their small, plastic Bridge into your router, download the Sonos App and follow the easy set-up instructions to be listening to your music in only about 10 minutes.
Sonos PLAY:1 Easy to create 5.1 surround sound
Then, once the network is established, you can you place the PLAY:1, in addition to any other (present or future!) Sonos speakers, anywhere within range, as long as each can be plugged into a power outlet. Every Sonos device forms and expands the network, sort of like a Wi-Fi repeater. The Bridge just needs to be within Wi-Fi range (about 30 meters) of a speaker, and additional Bridges can be purchased to easily further extend the network. The Sonos Controller App let you quickly set up two speakers for stereo or, for example, you can also set up two PLAY:1 speakers to serve as rear channels and turn the Sonos sound-bar into a 5.1 surround sound home theatre system using a Sonos sub.
Sonos PLAY:1 Easy to use Sonos Controller App
The Sonos Controller App allows you to access all the music you want no matter where your music library, in addition to extensive integrated services, including Spotify, TuneIn, Napster, Deezer, AmazonCloudPlayer, HypeMachine, and more. You can mix and match tracks into custom queues for your speakers.
Finally, although not waterproof or water resistant, the Sonos PLAY:1 is designed to withstand humidity so you can use it in the bathroom while taking your shower.
The SRP of a Sonos PLAY:1 is £169 (199€) with the Sonos Bridge, with a value of £39 (49€), currently included for free, which represents a 20% reduction compared to normal cost.